Thanksgiving, the first and most emphatically American holiday of the season, is also the best. You're not yet exhausted from a binge of over indulgence, carousing at office parties, and suffering through family obligations. And if you eat too much on Thanksgiving? Who cares! You've got a long weekend to look forward to. And no one's burdened by the two traditional sources of seasonal anxiety: gifts and religion.

More From Esquire

No doubt about it — Thanksgiving is the best possible way to kick off the holiday season. But hosting Thanksgiving isn't the same thing as inviting some people over, turning on the backyard barbecue and opening a bag of chips. It requires planning and organization to work. Here are six ways to ensure your Thanksgiving is memorable for the right reasons:

1. Don't start planning too early. Sure, if you're hosting Thanksgiving for the first time, you're going to be anxious and want to dive into planning as early as possible to make yourself feel better. Don't. You really shouldn't have even started talking turkey until November 1, and really, you still have plenty of time. Thanksgiving burnout isn't pretty.

2. Make people commit to attending. "I'll try to drop by" won't cut it — you'll either end up with too much food or too little.

3. Put your guests to work. Everyone loves a cocktail hour. And football games. But the surest way to get everyone in the house interacting and chatting is to hand them all knives (or vegetable peelers, if they're certifiably incompetent in the kitchen) and sic them on the vegetables.

4. You are the boss. Make it clear, from the beginning, that you're running the Thanksgiving show. And own the role, so that your guests don't end up bringing you seven different variations on green bean casserole. Take charge. No one will hate you for it.

5. Buffets are bad. It's okay to serve the meal family-style, but if you can't put everyone at a table (even if it's not the same table) with a plate and a chair, then rent some gear. (It's not that expensive — at the most, chairs will run you three bucks. Tables, eight bucks.) Nowhere is it written that the Pilgrims balanced plates on their knees.

6. Use place cards. The secret to good dinner conversation lies in controlling where the extroverts sit. Don't let your guests play musical chairs. Left to their own devices, the drinkers will congregate in a loud corner, the older folks will sit in a pack, silent and alone, while the children (who invariably put at a different table, away from their parents) systematically destroy Thanksgiving.

Adapted from "The Modern American Thanksgiving" by Glen Waggoner, from Esquire's November 1984 issue.